When the Earth Learned to Fly
by JHLZ.NTL
Summary: "The food is great, Chief!" Bolin exclaimed. "You sound surprised," Lin replied. "Well Mako said you practically lived at the police station before coming here and I didn't think you could... well... cook." "You know, I did have a life before Tenzin broke up with me," Lin replied.
1. Gyatso's Specialty

Lin was thirteen years old when she ditched her mother's metalbending academy again. This time, she managed to snatch up a belt with training cables on them that the older students in the police cadet school used before she left. She hid them in her satchel until she was safely out of the city, across the bay, and on Air Temple Island with her feet once again planted firmly on the ground. She had to tie the belt once she looped it around her tiny waist since it was too big, being built for grown men. She used her seismic sense to locate Tenzin, wanting to surprise him before anyone spotted her and alerted all the adults on the island of her presence. She decided to also try out the training cables and scale the cliff side just below the balcony that he and Aang were on at the time.

Though her metalbending skills were great for a child her age, she had not yet developed the strength or dexterity to manipulate such fine cables and fell halfway up after failing to anchor one cable deep enough to get past the shifty dirt on the rock face. She probably would have broken a leg that day if Aang hadn't sensed her presence the entire time with seismic sense, and turned the rock below the cliff to mud, making her fall much softer and more messy. Rather than being angry, Aang invited Lin to join them for Tenzin's lesson on how to make this cake. While Tenzin made an actual sweet smelling pastry, Aang had Lin make one out of a thick mud that was soft enough to not hurt anyone on impact, but firm enough to keep its form while flying through the air. Lin found his reasons for the consistency of her mud pie to be curious, but didn't question the Avatar and just went along with it since it gave her an excuse to be near Tenzin. They both set their pies out on the railing of the balcony on Air Temple Island to cool while Tenzin and Lin whipped up the ingredients for the gooey middle. Tenzin's was all white and frothy, while Lin's was all just dirt and water much to her dismay.

Still she was patient and went along with it. They poured their toppings onto their respective cakes and turned to Aang for instruction. Tenzin on his right side and Lin on his left. He showed how to use airbending to create air pockets in the topping on a real cake for Tenzin to replicate, then shaped it into a swirly, white fluffy puff. He then had Lin use earthbending to just create a spongy like mass of wet sand into the same shape.

"Now both of you follow me, Lin you just use earthbending, the motions are the same for this. Remember, it is an exercise for your aim and you only have one shot. Lin, I want you to focus on Air Acolyte Jinyu and Tenzin, you will focus on Air Acolyte Lu. Ready?" Aang asked looking behind him.

Young Lin nodded furiously, taking the same stance.

"Tenzin?"

"Yes, Dad," Tenzin replied not looking back.

"One, two, three!" And they all bent their cakes across the island aiming at the heads of the unsuspecting meditating air acolytes. The three of them all laughed as the air acolytes didn't even react as they were immediately pounced on by all sorts of small animals, eager to lick the cake off of their heads.

"Excellent work, my young pupils!" Aang said bowing to both Lin and and Tenzin.

* * *

Lin laughed at the sweet memory, as she sat on the railing of the balcony outside the kitchen with one leg up on the rail and her forearm resting on her knee. She watched with a smile as she gave the children verbal instructions for Monk Gyatso's Master Piece and watched as they scurried about gathering the ingredients. They didn't seem to notice what they were making even as they made the crust and filling and put it in the oven. Lin was astonished. _Tenzin never taught them? They were Monk Gyatso's Specialty, and Aang's favorite thing to make._

"It smells delicious!" Meelo exclaimed leaning forward to smell the baking cakes. Lin noticed Rohan run up to the oven and pulled him back by shifting the ground beneath his feet. "Meelo, set a good example for your little brother. Show some self restraint and don't stick your head into a fire to smell the sweetness of the cakes." Lin said dully.

"Sorry," Meelo sighed walking away from the oven.

Once it was time to remove the cakes from the oven, Lin slid off the railing so the children would have a place to put their cakes to cool. Meanwhile, Lin fetched herself a bowl of water and dissintegrated a mass of earth into it, then compressed it just enough to have the right amount of water, forming a clay cake with the same muddy consistency that she remembered Aang make so many years ago. She used the same bowl to make a fluffy light dirt mixture for her own topping then lined up beside the children and pourred it on together.

"You want to make nice uniform air bubbles throughout the gooey topping and form it into a shape like this," Lin said crafting her spiral dirt sponge. Jinora's was perfect, Ikki's was satisfactory, and Meelo's was fluffy but not quite uniform or particularly swirly. Rohan just succeeded in making two large bubbles in loo of a a uniformly fluffy whipped topping.

"Follow me," Lin said taking her stance.

"Wait we're going to throw these?" Ikki asked astonished.

"Not eat them?" Meelo asked devastated.

"And Daddy is down there meditating!" Jinora added.

"So? You don't have to eat the cake to enjoy it! I have no interest in eating mine!" Lin replied. "This is a test of your aim, and trust me, you will still enjoy it! Jinora, your target is Opal. Ikki, yours is your dad's Arrow, and Meelo, your target is Daw. Rohan, just get your cake off the railing and it will be enough"

"What will you aim for, Aunt Lin?" Jinora asked.

"I will aim for the Master Airhead's face." She replied biting her tongue. "Now, One... two... three!"

They laughed as Daw fell over and Opal screamed and Tenzin put his fists together bending all of the cake and mud off of him, and onto the group of airbenders he was teaching. Just then the group was swarmed by ring tailed lemurs all eager to lick the cake off of their bodies.

The children all looked at Lin for approval while she laughed maniacally. "Your aim is improving greatly, my hoard of mini Twinkle Toes!" she informed them all. They ran back into the kitchen before Tenzin could spot them on the balcony, but Lin had a hunch that he already knew she was behind it.

"Come on, time to spar!" Lin said brushing off her hands on her caprees.

"So we aren't actually going to have dessert?" Meelo cried.

"I don't know about you, but that look on dad's face _WAS_ pretty sweet!" Jinora declared still giggling.


	2. The Turning Gates

Lin was nine years old at the time. Her metal bending training was interrupted by a call from the police station that required Toph's immediate attention, so the then Chief of Police brought her and her three year old little sister to Air Temple Island, while Suyin was left in Katara's care, Lin was free to roam the island in search of her best friend. Somehow, Tenzin ended up dragging her to airbender training with Aang. He claimed it would be good for her to learn the quick and swift motions required to move through the gates, but her brain had been unable to see it. The gates turned too fast, and all became one headache-inducing blur as she got beat up inside and spit out the other end looking no better than she did after a sparing session with her beloved mother.

"Here, we'll turn the gates slower next time," Aang offered gently picking her up off the ground, not wanting her to be too discouraged to try again, thinking the cross-training would be good for the young earthbender.

"Of course you lily-livered airheads would go easy on her! Come on Linny, I'll teach you how to evade!" Toph yelled reappearing after a rather quick emergency run to the police station. She took Lin right out of Aang's arms and tossed her onto the sparring ground on the terrace immediately below the spinning gates and drew a boulder out of the ground and began to pelt her daughter mercilessly from above.

Lin dodged the first few rocks, but they became smaller and flew too close together for her to slip between. She managed to punch some of them out and smash others to dust with her forearms until eventually they came too fast and she erected a rock wall to protect herself from further harm.

"Toph, she's still just learning," Aang said resting a hand on Toph's shoulder, hearing young Lin's panicked panting behind the barrier she created between herself and her mother.

"Hey, I could do all of this stuff when I was twelve. She should be able to as well!" Toph replied brushing off the Avatar's hand from her shoulder before walking away.

Tenzin rushed to Lin's side once Toph was gone. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked wiping her eyes.

"She's always like this! I am not her! I am not a prodigy. I am trying, I really am, but I will never be good enough for her!" Lin yelled jumping up and returning the wall to the ground with a heavy thud, walking towards Aang.

"You are good enough, she just wants you to never stop learning. Maybe my dad can teach you earth bending, at least for a little while," Tenzin suggested wrapping an arm around his best friend's shoulder even after she brushed him off, seconds before.

So they did. Lin spent a whole week on Air Temple Island weaving through the gates learning earthbending and airbending exercises from Aang. Each day she became faster and faster through the gates. It was all so much fun until Toph returned to see her progress. Still, the only effective defense from her mother was to stand her ground and fight head-on or erect a solid wall between the two. And it was from her own mother that she ever really needed to protect herself against, so she gave up on the turning gates and returned to her deep, rooted, praying mantis fighting stance whenever she braced herself for a real attack.

* * *

"Hey Lin, the kids were describing these turning gates to me. They might help you with evading quick attacks. Would you like to try it?" Suyin asked her sister after their sparring match.

"Sure," Lin replied wiping he back of her neck with a towel.

Meelo started the gates with his airbending. Lin took a deep breath and ran straight into them, with her arms constantly moving and bending, stretching her torso to be as thin as possible as she weaved through the turning gates. She remembered which ones turned clockwise and counterclockwise, emerging from the other side unscathed, but drained. It took a completely different energy and concentration for the earthbender to get through those gates, but she did. She sat on her knees, catching her breath when she noticed some orangeyellow and red robes in front of her and looked up to see Tenzin beaming just like when they were children together.

"You still remember?" he asked seeming thoroughly impressed as he bent down before her. He wanted to touch her face so badly, to make sure she was okay. He wanted to embrace her with congratulations like he did when they were younger, but Su and the children were watching, and he didn't what they would say.

"Hey! No breaks from training! Do it again, Metal Lady!" Meelo yelled running over to them after wiping the shock from his face. Lin just looked at him and flicked a pebble at his head as Ikki and Jinora burst out laughing, Suyin following with Rohan in her arms.


	3. How She Shows Affection

Little Lin was probably eight years old, and Tenzin nine when she challenged Tenzin to another sparring match.

"Earth versus Air, Baldy! Let's go! Even with your new fancy dancing technique, you can't beat me!" Lin yelled.

"You're on!" Tenzin replied.

"Are you ready to get your butt whooped?!" Lin taunted as they took a few steps to one side in a circle, then one step back. Tenzin waited with open hands, while Lin's were curled into fists.

"I doubt you can even catch it!" Tenzin said jumping on an air scooter, riding in circles around her.

"I see you have learned a new technique. Well so have I!" She said jumping and liquefying the earth below her into a running board as she chased after him around the island. She was almost close enough to catching Tenzin, but not quite very adept to multi-tasking. She struggled to command the earth in multiple ways at once. She decided to try anyways and shot her fist up in her running position as a rock arm grabbed the foot on his air scooter and yanked him into the ground. But that basic move outside of running threw off her concentration and she off of her liquefied running earth mound and right into Tenzin accidentally dislocating his ankle as she crashed into him. But she didn't noticed and jumped off as soon as they made physical contact and flung a boulder at him, bruising the arms he used to shield his face, unable to evade with one useless foot in the ground, and he started wailing. Lin furrowed her brows in confusion, then saw the angle of his ankle.

"Tenzin!" She stomped her foot and released his from the ground, but he didn't stop screaming. He just held his leg and elevated his twisted ankle. She quickly debated having the ground swallow it up again to at least keep it still instead of letting Tenzin dangle it there, shaking slightly with the rest of his body as he wailed like a wounded hog-chicken. Just as she was about to do it, Katara and Toph ran out of the main house, Katara already with water encasing her hands ready to begin healing her son.

"This happens every time they spar!" Katara sighed dropping by her son.

"Sorry, Aunt Katara," Lin said more out of obligation than remorse.

"Every time? Really?" Toph said, her interest piquing.

"Yes," Katara sighed.

Toph laughed.

"Whats funny about that?" Lin demanded, folding her arms, frowning at her mother, moving to stand as close to Tenzin as possible without stepping on him, and as far from her mother as possible.

"I think someone has a crush!" Toph explained.

"Huh!" Both Tenzin and Lin jumped, Tenzin regretting it instantly as his ankle still wasn't set again.

"Toph could you-" Katara began. Toph lifted one hand and little earth tripods pulled Tenzin back down to the ground so he would lay still for his mother to heal him.

"I don't have a -"

"Oh please, Linny! Sometimes I wonder if I am really the blind one in this family. Look at yourself in your little fury. It doesn't even take a truth seer or a earthbender at all to be able to feel your heart racing. And violence is how we show affection in our household, AND these little sparring matches seem to be becoming more and more frequent, aren't they, Little Linny?" Toph asked punching her daughter in the arm, a smirk etched across her own face. Lin was fuming. She turned to Tenzin.

"Sorry I hurt you," She said looking at him before breaking off into a run, as far away from them as the island allowed.

A few hours, he found her in one of their secret caves. Some of them Tenzin had found and some of them, Lin carved out herself.

"I'm sorry for agreeing to spar you," Tenzin said looking at her couched up form on the ground, her little chin perched between her knees. "...today." he added with a goofy little smile that reminded everyone so much of Aang in his youth. "Would you like a rematch?" He asked.

"But..." Lin stuttered. At the time, Tenzin didn't understand why Lin was crying. Later he learned it was because what Toph said was true and Lin wasn't quite sure what to do with a crush. The thought of loving someone felt like weakness to her. She feared becoming dependent on another.

Tenzin dropped down beside her and put an arm over her back. She squirmed a little, unused to that type of physical contact.

"I'm okay with sparring. You never do anything my mother can't fix. Besides, it is good to keep her healing in practice since she no longer works in the hospital," Tenzin said with a smile.

Lin still looked down. He dropped his arm from her back and replaced it by his own side and she looked up at him, almost mad. He lifted an eyebrow and she soon realized what just happened. She liked his touch. In one impulsive movement, Tenzin threw both arms around her and kissed her cheek. She pushed him away and moved a hand towards his face, sending a rock straight at him, breaking his nose.

"What was that for?!" Lin yelled jumping to her feet as Tenzin tilted his head back to slow the bleeding.

"That? That was how we show affection in MY family," he said. He didn't cry this time that she injured him, and she immediately felt sorry for doing it.

"Oh," was all she said. She walked over to him and helped him to his feet. Rather than try to scale the cliff side outside the mouth of their cave, she punched a hole right through the roof and raised the ground below them to the surface of Air Temple Island and walked him into the house back to his mom. At least he didn't cry this time.

* * *

"Lin, can I talk to you for a moment? With everything that's been happening lately? I've come to realize something that, I wasn't so sure about until a few months ago, and before you say no, just know my children are completely supportive of my decision and I just-"

"Will you just spit it out already?"

"It is long overdue, but Lin Beifong, will you marry me?" Tenzin asked opening his hand to reveal a necklace it was a black meteorite stone fixed to a green earth kingdom ribbon. On the stone the earth symbol was carved with the three swirls of the Air Nation in its hands. "Please? I know we've had a lot of issues in the past, but you're everything to me. You keep me grounded. You keep me sane. You make me happy.

"You're an airbender! You're not supposed to be grounded!"

"Please Lin. You and I both know it's what we need. The children love you. They need you too, not just me. They understand."

Lin took one look at him down on one knee and turned away, folding her arms over her chest as if they would make her confusion go away. She stomped one foot erecting a pillar out of the earth beneath Tenzin's elevated knee, giving him an new bruise, and throwing him onto his back. Any average person would think that was rejection, but Tenzin knew Lin. 'No' meant 'no' and Lin hadn't said 'no'.

Before Lin could refuse, Tenzin got up and walked towards her and lifted the necklace over her head. It was one that he had began making when he was fifteen and finished when he was twenty three years old. After witnessing their father getting thrown onto his back, the children began to fear for his safety as he stroked Lin's covered neck. She didn't unfold her arms but lifted her hand just enough to curl her fingers into a fist, effectively peeling back the metal collar of her armor, giving herself to him.

"How does inflicting injury translate to 'yes'?" Jinora asked as they made their way back up to the main house on Air Temple Island.

"Violence is how I show affection," Lin replied shrugging her shoulders, walking with Tenzin's arm wrapped tightly around her body, their long, tall strides, perfectly synchronized as they had been since they were children.

"Does this mean you don't actually love us, because you've never hurt us?" Ikki asked with a puzzled, genuine concern etched across her face.

Lin stopped walking to bend down to Ikki's level before scooping the eleven year old into her arms. "Ikki, when you're strong enough to _really_ spar with me, you'll find out just how much I love you," Lin said with a smile, looking straight into her eyes. Ikki's eyes went wide with fear. "In the meantime, we will stick with how Tenzin's side of the family shows affection," Lin replied.

Tenzin watched with adoration and admiration as Lin carried Ikki all the way to the house. As soon as Meelo was born, Ikki became 'too big' to be carried according to Pema. Pema was kind, and nurturing, but she was not as strong physically, mentally, and emotionally as Lin always was. Though Lin infuriated Tenzin sometimes the way she disagreed with him, fought and walked out occasionally, she always came back and loved him with her entire existence. Even after he crushed her to marry Pema, she still loved him enough to give her bending up for his children, because they were a part of _him_.


End file.
